KOHÁN, György

KOHÁN, György Painter, Graphic Designer (Gyulavári 22nd February 1910 – Gyula 16th December 1966)   1929-1930: College of Fine Arts of Budapest; master: Oszkár Glatz. Between 1931 and 1932 he studied as an autodidactic in Paris. In 1935 he traveled to Milan on a study tour, then settled down in Hódmezővásárhely, in 1936. 1959: the plaquette of the 5th Autumn Show in Vásárhely; 1960 and 1964: Munkácsy Award; 1965: Kossuth Award. Kohán was one of the unique figures of the Hungarian painting of the Twentieth Century, who lead an uncustomary life. He developed his independent painting style around the beginning of the 1940, directly before the start of the Second World War. His style was linked strongly to the thematics and attitudes of the social ideals if the realists of South-Eastern Hungary. Kohán however made use of the innovations of modern art in the development of his forms. The peculiarity of his art was to be found primarily in its mode of expression: Kohán formed both his intimate inner feelings and his dramatic message with heroic pretension, which he presented with such painting powers, which yielded monumental thinking. Even though intellectual circle discovered his works early on, he encountered a great deal of disregard during the periods to come. Being labeled at times a formalist, then as a provincialist, he worked on the peripheries of Hungarian Art up until the end of the 1950’s. The majority of his works were produced during the last decade of his life. These works, besides the unbinding and opening of the symbols found in his themes, were fine examples of the portrayal of the relationship between space and the even plane, with pictorial articulation, as well as of a dramatic composition with simple, almost basic techniques (e.g.: Parasztasszony /Peasant Woman/, 1960; Napkorong Kazallal /Sun-disk with straw stack/, 1960; Lófékező /Horse Breaker/, 1963; Tanya /Farm/, 1965). His large-scale oeuvre became the inciting force of such a mode of thinking, which is capable of understanding the world, with the incorporation of the contradictory elements found within it.

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